Madmonster Review

Giant monsters and smashing stuff; two great tastes that taste great together. Although not all of the time. But even though it’s not a guaranteed recipe for success, Chillingo managed to turn it into quite the entertaining arcade platformer. Because in addition to being destructive, monsters are also apparently really, really bouncy.

The general idea of Madmonster is to mess up everything in sight. Perfect for a giant monster. Players can guide their behemoth left and right either by tilting or tapping the sides of their screen. They just have to get it to collide with an object and the resulting explosions take care of the rest. Of course they aren’t just tossed into a city and told to go nuts; they’re also given a set of three challenges they need to complete in order to unlock the next level. These range from racking up a specific number of combos to trashing certain vehicles and can be a lot tougher to pull off that one might think. Fortunately all the coins earned in a run are stockpiled and can be used to buy permanent upgrades - to make things easier - or even unlock new monsters.

There’s just something about the ridiculousness of bouncing off of tanks to smash into helicopters to ricochet into satellites and onward past the planet’s orbit. The monsters are adorable even when they’re destroying billions of dollars worth of military hardware and it’s always exciting to try and get over that Best Distance line. The steady trickle of upgrades and new challenges is also a great incentive to keep players invested in their bouncing critter. There’s an awful lot of content to access here, and that’s without considering all the other monsters that can be unlocked and individually upgraded.

My issue with Madmonster is a simple one, but it’s still something I consider important and oddly overlooked. There aren’t any helpful indicators to point players in the direction of anything they can bounce off of. If everything played in portrait mode this wouldn’t be so bad since there would be more room on the top and bottom which would allow a slightly better opportunity to target something while plummeting back to earth. However it plays in landscape mode, and it’s incredibly difficult to accurately judge where an object might be off screen. Maybe I’m just bitter about losing too many combos by inadvertently avoiding so many precious launching pads but it still bugs me.

All in all Madmonster is yet another great pick up and play iOS addiction. It’s cute, funny, and most definitely charming. Aiming at off screen targets is a hassle but it’s hard to care when I’m enjoying myself this much.